For many decades, caption text has been provided for foreign language films to provide a translation of the dialog for those not fluent in the language of the film. Usually when it is provided, the caption text normally is printed directly on the film itself so that when the movie is shown, it appears in the lower portion of the image area where it is visible to the entire audience. Since the caption text can be viewed by everyone, it can be very distracting to those that don't need or want to see it in order to understand the dialog. Thus, such text often is considered objectionable to such people.
As a result, a number of prior art devices have been proposed or demonstrated which display caption text in such a manner that it results in minimal to no effect on the portion of the audience not requiring its use. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,994 issued to Zola, Zola discloses a liquid crystal display that is placed at the bottom of a movie screen which forms alpha-numeric images in plane-polarized light against a cross-polarized background such that the alpha-numeric captions can be read with the use of polarized glasses. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,005,536 and 5,648,789 issued to Beadles, et. al, Beadles et. al. disclose captioning glasses which receive the caption data via a wireless connection and then displays it in the field of view of the user. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,944, issued to Seder, Seder discloses a system in which the caption text is displayed on a panel mounted on the rear wall of the theater and the user is given a small reflecting device which reflects the text located on the panel so that it can be seen by the user. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,266 issued to Fiumi, Fiumi discloses a system in which the caption text is stored in a memory device which then displays the text on a separate screen near the movie screen in response to signals encoded on the film outside the image area. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,785,539 issued to Hale, Hale discloses a system for wirelessly triggering a portable device by IR or radio transmission where the portable device is pre-programmed with the caption text or an audible version thereof.
The problems with the prior art captioning devices concern the acceptance, economics and the implementation of the captioning system. Acceptance of a particular system depends on the amount it distracts members of the audience who do not need to use the system. The economics and implementation of prior art devices involve the capital outlay required per theater. In some of the prior art devices a new screen, wiring and installation may be required for each theater, in addition to the cost of the individual devices used by the patrons to access the caption text. For example, in the Zola U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,994 system, the installation and cost of a large LCD panel, (perhaps 20 feet by 1½ feet in size), the auxiliary lamp or mirror and the electronics needed might be cost prohibitive. Also, there is the additional cost of the individual polarized glasses for each of the patrons. Likewise, the Seder U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,944 system requires the installation and cost of an additional display unit mounted on the rear wall of each theater, additional wiring, and individual mirror devices for each person using the system.
Thus, since most of these prior art systems involve a very large outlay of capitol to accommodate a very small percent of the theater patrons, they are economically unfeasible. And while the distraction to people sitting nearby would be very minimal for the Zola system, it could be significant for the Seder system.
Thus, the system of the present invention is an improvement over the prior art because it requires minimal permanently mounted equipment for each theater in which is it used so that the capital outlay is nominal. Likewise, the cost of the individual glasses worn by the patrons to capture the text is nominal.
The system of the present invention further is advantageous over prior art devices because it presents caption information to individuals in a movie theater in such a way that the caption text is neither obvious nor distracting to other patrons in the theater. Therefore, the system of the present invention provides the movie theater industry with a low cost system that virtually eliminates distraction to other patrons.
Currently, many theaters currently have an infrared system that provides enhanced audio dialog for those that have an impairment of hearing but are not deaf. This system transmits the dialog via an IR carrier. Earphones worn by the patrons receive the IR and amplify the audio signal. In addition, many theaters currently use or intend to use video projectors containing Digital Light Processors (“DLP”) which are silicon based optical modulators that transform a digital signal input into a viewable light image for moving picture presentation. The DLPs do not use film but rather receive and project digital signals from satellites or other feed. The frame rate of current DLP can be as high as one hundred forty four Hertz, which allows the encoding of the text in a manner that uses persistence of vision for masking. The present invention is designed to be used with DLP and the IR signal available in the theater. However, any other digitalprojector which flashes light at the screen at a very high rate that is undetected by the human eye may be used with an IR or other available signal synchronizing system.